


A Tangled Web

by trancer



Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: Dark, Dubious Consent, F/F, Femslash, Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-30
Updated: 2009-11-30
Packaged: 2017-10-18 01:41:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/183580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trancer/pseuds/trancer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The one where Will finds out and all Hell breaks loose.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Tangled Web

Will didn’t say a word.

Helen didn’t know what to say. She thought he’d gone home for the evening. She thought she’d locked the door to her office.

She was wrong.. On both counts.

He’d heard Ashley scream (Ashley was always so damn vocal). He came running, throwing open the door, looking rather silly with his pen light raised over his head and brandished as a weapon.

He hadn’t found Ashley being attacked. No. He found Ashley sitting on the end of Helen’s desk, the contents swept away onto the floor, bare legs, open blouse, head thrown back as another scream erupted from her throat. And..

Helen Magnus on her knees, head buried between Ashley’s legs.

There was no misinterpretation of the scene, no excuse or argument Helen could verbalize.

Helen heard the door burst open and quickly rose to her feet. Her eyes widened at the sight of Will, her hands quickly moving to close her own opened blouse.

Ashley was a few beats behind. She opened her eyes because, well, because Mother wasn’t doing that *thing* with her tongue anymore. She saw Helen, Helen’s expression, the wheels turned and her eyes shot towards the door, towards Will.

“Oh God,” she whimpered, hopping off the desk, scurrying for her leather pants.

“Will..” Helen spoke, the words trailing off. She didn’t know what to say.

“Don’t,” the makeshift weapon lowered until his arms were slack at his sides.

Helen took a step forward. “You don’t understand.”

“I understand completely!” His eyes flashed hot with an anger that bordered on hatred. She watched as everything he knew, everything he believed shattered in that heated gaze. “I understand she’s your daughter. But then again, the rules don’t apply to the great Helen Magnus.”

She took another step forward. “Don’t you dare judge me!”

Will met her step and added his own, rushing towards her until they were a foot apart. “SOMEBODY HAS TO!” he yelled.

“Will!” Suddenly, Ashley was in the space between them, a forceful hand on Will’s chest, anger in her eyes. “Don’t!”

His eyes went from Helen’s to Ashley’s then softened. He was a doctor. He believed in the words ‘do no harm’. “Ashley,” he whispered.

“I chose this.”

“Don‘t you get it?” Will sighed. “You were never in a position to choose.”

“You’re wrong. Mother’s right, you don’t understand.”

“I understand completely,” his gaze went back to Helen and the anger returned to his eyes. “If you’ll excuse me,” he backed away, turned on his heel and headed towards the door. “I’m gonna go throw up.”

“You know,” Ashley spun around as Will closed the door behind him. “I never really liked that guy. Seemed kinda douchey.”

Helen wasn’t standing behind her. She’d moved to the bar by her desk, shaky hands filling the glass with the aged scotch. Helen had an affinity for spirits - one of the few things she could consume that were older than her. Meant to be sipped and savored, Helen downed the 200 year old liquor in one swallow then refilled her glass. She downed the next one, let the liquid linger in her mouth until it burned away the taste of her own daughter.

It didn’t work.

“Mother?”

“Go, Ashley,” Helen kept her back to her daughter. “Just.. Leave.”

**

ONE WEEK LATER

“Jesus Christ, dude,” Henry snorted as he slipped into the booth across from Will. “You look like shit.”

Will did look like shit and he knew it. His hair was unkempt. There were dark circles under his eyes and he probably smelled. He hadn’t slept or showered since that day in Helen’s office. Every time he closed his eyes all he saw was the one image he never wanted to see in the first place.

He looked down at the cup filled with a sludge attempting to call itself coffee. It had gone cold and bitter. Will slid it away from him. “You knew didn’t you?” His eyes went to Henry, cold and dark. “About Helen and.. Ashley?”

“Oh,” Henry nervously scratched the fuzz growing on his chin. “That.”

“That,” Will snorted.

“Dude, I’m the Security guy. There are like a billion cameras in that building.”

“And you didn’t say anything?” Will slammed his fist down on the table. “You didn’t do anything?”

Henry held up his hands defensively. “None of my business, man.”

“None of your busi.. How can you sit there, knowing what you know, and say something like that?”

“It’s like Spock said ‘the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one’. I‘m a fucking werewolf, man. Do you know what my life was like before I met Helen? What the rest of the abnormals lives were like? You were a part of it. You‘ve seen it.”

“So Ashley’s the sacrificial lamb?”

“Look, I’m just the security and computer guy,” Henry sighed, slumping back in his seat. “I don’t do philosophical stuff. Maybe the person you should be having this conversation with is Helen.”

**

Helen stood at the large bay window in her bedroom, watching the moon rise above the city. It was a beautiful summer night - warm, with a slight breeze that brought the scent of flowers from the garden into her room. It was almost.. romantic.

She brought her hands up and gripped her arms to quell the shiver running through her. To quell the amorous feelings of touch, smell and taste, skin against skin, heat, wetness.

It would have been easy to say ‘it’ hadn’t been her idea - that the child had seduced the adult. But Helen knew herself too well, didn’t indulge in such fantasies. It had been a subtle seductive dance. One she, in the beginning, tried desperately not to partake in. Tried not to give in to the dark desires that flushed her skin and warmed her insides. Until the desires became an ache, a need, an obsession. Her child grew into a woman and Helen had watched her as she’d watch a fruit growing on the vine until all she wanted to do was pluck and eat.

She shivered again at the memory of that fruit - plump, pink and wet before her. How she pulled the delicate folds open with her fingers. How she smelled her. Tasted her. How she leaned in and gorged herself until she thought she’d burst.

Ashley had never looked at another. Helen never gave her a reason to. She taught Ashley about sex and Ashley was an eager and willing pupil. While the student never surpassed the teacher, what Ashley lacked in experience she made up for with her enthusiasm, her imagination, taking Helen places even she had never dared.

Helen gasped. A hand, her hand, had worked its way up to her breast, pinching the hardened nipple through her antiquated nightgown. The pain streaked outwards, pooled in her core where it began to flame and pulse heatedly.

It had only been a week and Helen ached for Ashley. Ached like she did before Ashley had been born, felt the decades of loneliness crushing down upon her. Her fingers crept down her thigh, pulled the material upwards, until she felt the skin underneath and her fingers eagerly trailed between her legs.

Her fingers slipped in easily. She was wet, so very wet. Helen moaned as she touched herself, touched herself like Ashley would.

Ashley.

The door to Helen’s bedroom jangled. She hadn’t locked her bedroom door in over fifty years.

“Mother,” Ashley called to her from the other side. “Open the door.”

Helen pursed her lips, suppressing the moan bubbling in the back of her throat. The sound of Ashley’s voice sent a shiver down her spine, connecting to the fingers buried deep in her sex.

“I know you’re in there, Mother,” the door jangled harder. “Let me in.”

It had to end. Helen had known this the first time she’d touched Ashley. She just never expected it to happen so soon, maybe, at all.

“MOTHER!” Ashley pounded on the door, then silence.

Helen grit her teeth in frustration even as her hips began to rock, the hand on her breast massaging and groping vigorously. She needed to do this, to exorcise this darkness inside her. To close her eyes one last time and see blonde hair and blue eyes gazing lovingly at her.

Faster. She removed the hand on her breast and placed it on the windowsill.

Harder. She leaned forward, spread her legs just a little wider.

Deeper. Clenched her eyes tighter and saw Ashley staring up at her from between her legs.

“Mother!”

Helen opened her eyes to see Ashley staring up at her. She was down in the garden, blonde hair, blue eyes bright from the moonlight. A Romeo to Helen’s twisted Juliet and Helen came, trembling and shuddering, clenching around her own fingers.

Spent, she leaned her weight onto the hand holding her up, head sagging down as she let her fingers linger just a little longer, milking herself of every last tremble.

She opened her eyes to the sound of rustling bushes, looked down to see Ashley at the foot of the rose trestle with melancholy and eager eyes, so wanting to please her mother, uncertain if Helen would let her. The rules had changed and Ashley didn’t quite know why.

Tonight, Helen wouldn’t tell her. She rose to her feet, tried pulling her lips into a soft smile, tried to tell her daughter that she still loved her. That she would always love her. Then..

Helen closed the windows and drew the shades shut.

**

“Henry?” Helen broke the silence of the computer room. “Have you seen Ashley?”

Henry spun around in his chair. “Hello Henry.. How are you today, Henry?” he twisted his chair 90 degrees to articulate his imaginary conversation. “Why I’m doing fine. Thanks for asking.” He twisted his chair again. “How are the upgrades going?” And again. “Funny you should ask..”

“Henry!” Helen’s 150 year old patience had worn thin. “Point taken. Could you please answer my question.”

“What Ashley does is her business.”

“If it takes place in the Sanctuary,” she crossed the space of the tiny room, leaning against Henry’s desk and folding her arms across her chest. “It’s your business, which means it’s my business.”

“Christ, you sound like Will.”

Helen‘s eyes squinted suspiciously. “You’ve spoken to Will?”

“There’s this little device known as a telephone. Hell, you probably helped Bell create it. Why don’t you try using it sometime?”

“Henry..” Helen leaned forward slightly. There was a tone in her voice, a menacing tinge that made Henry shiver.

“Okay,” Henry raised his hands defensively. “I haven’t seen or spoken to Ashley in a couple days.”

“Is she in the Sanctuary?”

“Honestly, Helen,” he shifted nervously suddenly wondering if he *should* have been paying more attention. “I have no idea.”

**

It was a dark and stormy night..

Will paused, chuckling aloud as he swayed on his feet and shook his head at his own lack of imagination.

He’d never been much of a drinker. Had seen too many times, up close and personal, the damage liquor could do. But, having now consumed to the point of excess, he could definitely see the benefits of over consumption. His mind dulled, finally clear from thoughts of Helen or Ashley or the Sanctuary, or what Helen *does* to Ashley inside the high walls of the Sanctuary.

“Fuck,” he muttered to himself because the thoughts were back, images that flickered quickly and brightly before fizzling out like fireworks. And the bars were closed and the stores had stopped selling liquor for the night.

A dark and story night.

Thunder boomed loudly in the distance. Will pulled up his collar, the material useless at shielding him from the water drizzling down his neck.

He cut a corner and turned into an alleyway, taking the shortcut home. He’d be soaked to the bone but at least it would be for a shorter period of time.

Lightening flashed and a figure appeared in the alleyway. Will stopped. The saturated hairs on the back of his neck stood on edge. Lightening flashed again and, for a second, he saw blonde hair and blue eyes.

“Ashley?” he blinked.

She stepped forward, stepping into the dim shaft of the only working light. Her hair was plastered against her scalp, bruises and scratches on her face. But it was her eyes that caught Will’s attention - bright and wild.

“Do you know what you’ve done?” she sneered at him.

“The right thing,” he stepped closer. She was his friend. She needed him. “In time, you’ll see what I did was right.”

“Time?” Ashley laughed. “Time is the one thing you don’t have.”

He didn’t see it until it was too late. The pipe in Ashley’s hand swung towards his head, cracked hard against Will’s skull. Then..

Will didn’t see anything.

**

 _“Wake up, Will.”_

Pain. Will awoke to blinding, searing pain, as if a vice of molten ore were crushing his skull. He blinked open his eyes and regretted it immediately. His head spun, introducing new pain to his head and he choked back the vomit shooting up like a shot from his esophagus.

This was no hangover, of that, Will was certain. He diagnosed his self, running through his symptoms, cross referencing them with the ailment.

Head injury. Concussion. Why did he have a concussion?

Ashley.

Will forced his eyes open, grimacing at the pain shooting into his brain through his eye sockets. Darkness beyond the light that wasn’t as bright as the pain suggested. Everything was blurry. His glasses were gone. A small room, door closed, pipes on the walls, water dripping on the floor. A basement? The sewers?

He was sitting in a chair and suddenly became aware of his binds; tape around his ankles, securing them to the legs of the chair, more around his wrists bound tightly behind his back. His shirt was gone, his chest bare and spattered with blood from the wound on his forehead.

A figure moved in the darkness.

“Ashley?”

“Yes Will.” Then a sound, a chair being drug across the floor. Ashley set it down just across from Will, then placed herself in the seat.

“I know you’re upset,” Will licked his lips then continued, “maybe even angry, but this isn’t the answer, Ashley.”

Ashley placed her elbows on her knees and leaned forward, her features going from blurry to crystal clear. “How do you know this isn’t the answer when you have no idea what the question is?”

“Ashley..”

“You ever wonder why Mother doesn’t have any pets?”

“What?”

“C’mon, how long have you been working for her? She’s like a bajillionaire. Doesn’t Helen Magnus seem like the type of person who’d have a few pets running around the Sanctuary?”

Will closed his eyes, tilted his head back. It felt like giant boulders rolling down a hill inside his brain. “I don’t understand.”

“Mother used to have pets. Cats. She’s a big fan of taking in strays,” she paused, accenting her point with her eyes. Making certain she had Will’s attention. When he opened his eyes again, Ashley continued, “When I was around 12, the cats started disappearing. Do you know why the cats started disappearing, Will?”

“No, Ashley, I don’t.”

“They started disappearing because I started killing them. Mother pulled me out of school after that. There were doctors and tests and treatments and, for awhile, it seemed like the darkness in me had been purged. But, the darkness never really went away. Just waited for the light to go out.”

Ashley reached into her back pocket and pulled out a straight razor. Will felt his stomach churn, the dots connecting, painting a very bad picture. One where Will didn’t survive. “Ashley please..”

“Eventually, the darkness returned,” Ashley opened the razor. It was an antique with a pearl handle. She stared at the blade, entranced as the light hit the straight edge and reflected on her face. “But Mother was ready this time. She had a solution. Mother always has a solution. She enveloped me in her light and the darkness went away. And it was perfect. Until you took it away.”

Her eyes snapped towards Will. Whoever Ashley was, or had been, that person no longer stared at Will. This was someone different. Will tensed. His hands balled into fists, useless behind his back. His heart began to hammer, the adrenaline cutting through the pain.

“The darkness is back, Will. And I don‘t have a light anymore.”

“Ashley,” Will began to pant. “You don’t have to do this. We can find another way. There’s always another way.”

“Not for me,” she pressed the corner of the blade against his chest, barely touching the skin. “You’re a doctor. You know that feeling when you press the blade against the skin, that.. resistance. Then the blade goes in. It’s almost like sex, penetration and pain.”

“Ashley!”

Ashley raked the blade across his chest.

Will screamed.

The door burst open, beams from flashlights cut through the dim light of the room.

“Ashley!” Helen yelled and Will whimpered in relief.

She pressed the blade against Will’s throat. “It’s too late, Mother!”

“It will be if you make another move,” Helen stepped deeper into the room. “Cut him again and I will never forgive you. I‘ll never take you back.”

The blade moved back and away from Will’s skin. Ashley’s hand suddenly started to tremble. She turned her face towards Helen, blue eyes already filling with tears. “You want me back?”

“I was..” Helen sighed. She placed a hand on Ashley’s shoulder. “I was wrong to have turned my back on you. I thought with my head instead of my heart. I won‘t,” her eyes turned to Will’s, a flicker of anger in them, “let it happen again.”

Will watched as the lucidity returned to Ashley’s eyes. He would have been amazed at the transformation if not for the white-hot pain searing across his chest. Ashley turned to face him, her eyes went wide, the blood drained from her face. “I’m so sorry,” she whimpered, turning again to Helen. “I didn’t..”

“It’s okay, Ashley. Just give me the knife.”

Ashley rose to her feet, looking all the world like a lost child. She handed the blade to Helen, who quickly folded and stuffed it into a pocket. She outstretched an arm and Ashley folded into her embrace, crying openly into her mother’s shoulder as Helen whispered softly into her ear.

Helen, with Ashley in her arms, stepped away. “Take him away,” she spoke and suddenly there were people in the room; men dressed in black riot gear with rifles, masks over their faces. Will wasn’t sure if he should be relieved or if he’d walked from the frying pan into the fire. His body chose for him and twice in one night -

Will blacked out.

**

Someone was moaning. Outside the blackness of Will’s eyes, he could hear it - low and throaty. Then, Will realized, the moaning was coming from him.

Pain again as he opened his eyes. But he forced them open anyway. Gray walls, white sheets, fluorescent lights. He was back in the Sanctuary. Will almost felt relieved.

A shadow moved in the corner of his eye.

“Hello, Will.”

The adrenaline cut through him like ice water shooting through his veins. His vision cleared. The pain receded and all he could feel was the heavy drumming of his heart and its thudding in his ears.

“Ashley,” he swallowed hard.

“How are you feeling?” She stepped towards him, ending at the foot of the bed. She smiled politely, brightly, like she hadn’t been the one to club him over the head with a pipe, hadn’t been the one to slice open his chest with a razor.

“I’ve seen better days.”

She took another step forward. Will tensed, instinctively moving backwards on his elbows.

“Ashley.”

The blonde froze and two sets of eyes, hers and Will’s, moved towards the entrance to the Infirmary. Helen stood in the doorway, blouse and skirt mostly hidden underneath her lab coat, hands clasped behind her back. It was her smile Will found disconcerting, too professional, too affected. A doctor’s smile.

“Will’s not going to get better if you keep harassing him,” she said through her fake smile as she stepped deeper into the room. “Let him get some rest, please.”

“Fine,” Ashley huffed, rolling her eyes. She raised a hand and wiggled her fingers. “Talk to ya later,” she said before bounding out of the room.

Helen watched her daughter exit.

“She doesn‘t remember a thing,” Will broke the silence.

“I had her memory erased.”

“Seriously?” Will asked, momentarily forgetting that he was talking to Helen Magnus. “You sure that’s for the best?”

Helen raised her hand. “You don’t get to talk to me about how to raise my daughter.” She let out a hard sigh, relaxing her shoulders as she did. She grabbed the chair next to Will’s bed then sat down, crossing her legs and setting her clasped hand on her knee.

“Helen..”

“I mean it, Will,” her voice was soft but her eyes were hard, cold. Will had seen that look before and seriously began to wonder whether Ashley got it from her father or her mother.

“If you wish to leave the Sanctuary,” Helen continued. “I understand. And you’ll have to understand if all records of your employment here disappear as well. But,” Helen paused, eyes momentarily focused on something on the bed then snapped back to Will. “If you choose to stay, I will be grateful. Understand Will, I chose you for a purpose. I.. need you. Or, your morality as it were. I’ve lived a long time and, on occasion, my focus has a tendency to miss the big picture. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I tend to color outside the lines,” Helen chuckled at that then quieted. “But, and if you choose to stay here you must also understand this, when it comes to Ashley, I will not bend or waver or walk outside the path I’ve chosen. Ashley must be dealt with my way and my way only.”

“Helen,” Will spoke. “She needs help.”

“You presumed an outcome before you knew all the facts and it almost got you killed. There’s no pill nor therapy nor procedure that can help her more than I can.”

“Even if what you’re doing is what’s causing her the most harm?”

Helen sneered, her eyes flashing hard and cold like before. Like she was debating whether or not to kill him. She quickly rose from her seat, smoothing out the barely noticeable wrinkles in her lab coat as she did. “You should get some rest,” Helen said, making her way towards the door. “You’re going to need it.”

**

Will walked gingerly, an arm wrapped over his mid-section. His wounds were healing but no where close to fast enough. The pills - a little something Helen cooked up - helped. When he took them. In ways Will couldn’t quite articulate, he didn’t quite trust Helen. Like he’d looked into her soul and saw something unexpected, something dark, intangible, unfathomable. Then, Will blinked because to look any further would mean having to face whatever darkness Helen held within her. And Will wasn’t quite ready for that battle.. Yet.

In the end, Will chose to stay. He didn’t do it for Helen. Maybe he did it for the world, his own ego or maybe he did it for Her.

Ashley.

She pounded the heavy bag with taped hands slowly turned pink from her bleeding knuckles. Her hair pulled back in a ponytail, the sweat dripped off her face, coated her skin and saturated her clothes. She’d been there for hours - punching, kicking, assaulting the bag like she was exorcising a demon.

Maybe she was, Will thought.

“Hey,” he announced his presence, taking a chair and wincing as he sat down.

“Hey,” she stopped punching the bag, stilling it with her hands as she looked over at Will. “Sorry about that.”

“About what?”

Ashley snorted. She grabbed her water bottle off the floor, taking a long swallow before setting it back on the ground again. “For slicing you open like a watermelon.”

Will’s mouth opened then snapped closed.

“Kasumi has the ability to erase people’s memories,” Ashley explained. She walked towards Will. Noticing his increasing unease with each step, Ashley stopped, plopping herself down on the workout mat halfway between the bag and Will. “But it hasn’t worked on me for a couple years. I don’t know why.”

“Does Helen know?” Will asked.

“God no,” Ashley huffed. “It’d kill her if she knew.”

“Why lie?”

“Because,” her eyes were soft, hard and cold at the same time. “It’d kill her if she knew.”

Will closed his eyes, shook his head because the thoughts rattling around were reaching the point of critical mass. “There has to be another way. There’s always another way. Something better than..”

“What?” Ashley cut him off. “Fucking each other.” She exhaled, leaning back on her hands. “You still don’t get it, do you? The moment you walked through those doors, the normal rules stopped applying.”

“No,” Will fired back. “There are always rules, always boundaries that shouldn’t be crossed.”

“For fuck’s sake, Will,” she laughed in disbelief. “I’m the daughter of two immortal’s, one of them being Jack the fucking Ripper. How the Hell is that normal?”

“Oh!” His eyes widened. “I thought you didn’t know.”

“Hello?” She waved with a hand. “The daughter of two geniuses here. Admittedly, I didn’t put it together until the mind wipes stopped working. Until I couldn’t forget anymore and, believe me, that was one helluva mind fuck. It‘s just, you have to understand something.” She leaned back up and forward, wrapping her arms around her knees. “I’m not normal and whatever choices there were for me, they ended at the moment Dad’s psychotic sperm met Mom’s genius egg,” she paused, raising a hand to stop Will from interrupting. “I’m like a planet stuck between two giant stars, always being pulled in one direction or the other. And when I drift from one, when I drift from Mother and I’m pulled towards.. Him.. Well, you’ve seen up close and personal what happens. It’s not just sex. She’s the drug, and believe me when I say I’ve been on all of them, she’s what keeps me balanced. What keeps me sane. You think either of us *wants* this? Christ Will, you don’t think we don’t *know* how fucked up this all is? But, it’s the only choice we have. It’s the only choice I have. Which would you have me choose, Will? Her or Him?”

With that, Ashley rose to her feet. Her nose wrinkled as she caught a whiff of herself. “God, I’m rank!”

Will watched Ashley as she made her ways towards the exit. “Ashley,” he called out to her.

She stopped in her tracks, turning to face him. “Yeah?”

“That was a nice little speech you had there,” his face turned serious, eyes squinting so he could make out her face. “But aren’t you forgetting something?”

“What’s that?”

“You know. Helen does what she does because she believes you don’t truly know what you are. But you do. Wouldn’t this change everything if she knew?”

“Maybe, but she doesn’t,” Ashley smiled. She took a few steps back into the room. The smile on her lips remained but her eyes were hard and cold. “And she won’t. Because if you mention a word of this conversation with her,” she lowered her voice to a whisper even though to Will’s ears it sounded like a sonic boom. “I’ll finish what I started.”

**

Helen waited patiently in Ashley’s room while the younger woman showered. Time was different for Helen but, in many ways, the same as it was for every one else - it went too slow, went too fast and never seemed quite enough.

The door to Ashley’s bathroom opened and Ashley stepped into her bedroom. Oblivious to her mother’s presence, she hummed softly to herself, wrapped in one towel as she used another to dry her hair.

Helen took the time to admire her creation. In the blink of an eye, her own child had gone from tiny and pink and barely able to fit in Helen’s arms to a grown woman, with curves and hips and breasts, with wants and desires, lusts and sins. Which was why Helen loved these moments the most, when Ashley was fresh out of the shower, scrubbed clean and smelling like there was still some innocence left in her.. until Helen took it away.

“Mother!” Ashley stopped. “Is there something wrong?”

“No,” Helen sighed softly. “Not at all. Come here.” Helen outstretched her arms and then Ashley was in them, smelling clean and fresh and innocent. “I’m just glad you’re home.”

“Me too,” Ashley exhaled.

Helen wasn’t certain who shuddered first but she could feel the sudden rise in Ashley’s heartbeat, the anticipation of what was to come next. Helen slid her hand up the back of Ashley’s head, threading her fingers into the shower damp hair. Her lips grazed the shell of Ashley’s ear, her breath shallow and ragged.

This must be done. This has to be done.

Did she have to enjoy it so damn much?

Her lips pressed against the corner of Ashley’s jaw and Ashley tilted her head, offering her neck to her mother. And Helen took it, claimed Ashley’s neck with her lips. She felt Ashley’s heartbeat in the vein pulsing heavily beneath her skin, felt Ashley purr as her teeth scraped against the smooth flesh.

“I dreamt,” Ashley panted. “I dreamt you left me.” Ashley smiled at the lie, how easily, how effortlessly it rolled off her tongue. She was supposed to remember a mundane mission, one that kept her from Mother for a bit too long and how much she loved Mother and how Mother was always right. How *submissive* she should be to Mother. Which made the lie all that more delicious because Ashley was anything but submissive. Not anymore.

“No, my darling,” Helen cooed softly into Ashley’s ear. “I will never leave you.”

“You promise?” Ashley pulled back to look into her mother’s eyes with the most hang-dog, puppy-eyes look she could muster. All the while wondering if Father would be proud of her deception, if Helen was as easily played in his arms as she could be in Ashley’s.

“I promise,” Helen smiled back. The alarms raised were a shiver that went up her spine, a shiver Ashley interpreted as desire because her lips were on Helen’s, her hands pulling at the buttons of Helen’s blouse all while she pushed Helen towards the bed.

“I love you, Mother,” Ashley purred as she ruined Helen’s blouse, then made quick disuse of Helen’s panties as Helen flopped backwards onto the edge of the bed.

Helen was used to this - this frantic urgency of Ashley’s. She held herself up on one hand, the other threading into Ashley’s hair as her daughter dove between her legs. A hiss escaped her throat at the first sensation of Ashley’s tongue, then lips, then it was nothing but suction and friction, lips and fingers and the rising crescendo of her impending orgasm.

Ashley hadn’t exactly lied to Will, she just hadn’t been entirely truthful. Mother was a drug to her. A pull Ashley could feel down in her bones. It’s just - Mother didn’t pull Ashley away from the darkness, she drew her to it. Every touch, every kiss, every orgasm, every dirty, nasty fuck drew the darkness Ashley knew lurked within her mother and pulled it into Ashley. She could fake it, be the Good Ashley mother always wanted her to be. But, she could only fake it for so long. Fake it until the need to be here, face buried between her Mother’s legs drinking long after she’d had her fill, became too much she needed to hurt something to relieve the ache.

Punching, hurting, killing? The random acts of violence she got to do under the guise of ‘the greater good’? It was fun, it was great but it was nothing compared to the corruption of her own mother. Mother had secrets and there was no greater secret than the dark heart she held inside her. A dark heart Ashley loved to draw upon with every swipe of her tongue, every jutting thrust of her fingers.

Helen came, her body seizing, mouth open in a silent scream as the paroxysm overtook her. Lovers, too numerous to count especially in this particular moment, could never do to Helen what Ashley did. She flopped backwards onto the mattress, waves of pleasure rippling across her across her skin, searing her insides. Her daughter, her creation, everything that was good about Helen and bad about John, or was it vice versa?

“Ashley, please,” Helen croaked, tightening the fingers still tangled in Ashley’s hair. The mattress dipped as Ashley clambered over her. Helen opened her eyes to see her daughter gazing down at her like a cat eying its prey, lips and chin still wet with Helen’s essence. It shouldn’t have turned her on, seeing her daughter like this, smelling her sex on her own child, it didn’t stop Helen from clamping her hand onto the back of Ashley’s head and pulling her down until their lips met, until their mouths opened and all Helen could taste was herself and Ashley.

She rolled the two over and it was Helen’s turn, all hungry lips and groping fingers. She held the perfect breasts in each of her hands, pinching and pulling Ashley’s dark, pink nipples until they were pebble hard. Ashley moaned and gasped and arched into Helen’s touch.

“Scoot back,” Helen growled. Ashley complied, scooting back onto the mattress until her head met the headboard. Helen sat up and between Ashley’s legs. Placing one leg over Ashley’s, she leaned back, propping herself with one arm as she moved her hips forward and it was flesh against flesh. Ashley’s moan rumbled all the way down to between her legs and Helen hissed as the reverberations rippled into her core.

Ashley was so wet. Ashley was always wet, always eager, always ready. With their sexes pressed against each other, Helen began to roll her hips.

“Fuck,” Ashley grunted, body trembling as she matched Mother’s rhythm.

Mother. Ashley’s drug. Ashley’s addiction. And Mother never ceased to amaze her, never ceased to find some new high to give her; Mother’s skin - clit and cunt and never-ending wetness - slip-sliding against her. Her hand, palm down against Ashley’s mound and her thumb slipped between them, pressed against Ashley’s clit.

“Come for me, Ashley,” Helen purred. Not that Ashley needed any prompting. Mother could make her come with just a look. But if Mother was offering a little.. more, a little extra incentive, Ashley always took the opportunity.

“Please Mother,” Ashley whined in the sugary sweet and soft, baby voice she knew turned her Mother on. Turned Mother on because it meant the re-set switch had taken, Ashley’s slate wiped clean and Mother loved to smudge Ashley’s slate with sin. “Say it.”

There was always a cognitive dissonance when the crude and distasteful words left Helen’s mouth. It’s not that she was above a little dirty talk in the bedroom. The words - slag and tart and whore - just weren’t meant for Ashley. Her Ashley. The one who was clean and pure and free of sin, not this sweating, rutting, lascivious thing pressed against her.

So much like John.

Too much like Helen.

Helen watched as Ashley came, writhing and keening, the mask washed away until nothing was left but the purest of expressions and Helen plunged three fingers into her daughter just to see it again. When the spasms subsided and her breathing slowed, Helen clambered over Ashley, pressed her body down and molded against her like Ashley had been made for Helen.

Ashley responded by wrapping her legs around Helen’s waist, placing her hands on either side of Helen’s face and pulling their lips together. Ashley kissed, still hungry, still urgent, still full of the need that had been Helen’s damnation so many years ago.. and not very long at all.

The kiss broke and Helen gazed down at her daughter. The shiver, the one from before that Ashley had misinterpreted, returned. Helen knew in that moment why she hadn’t seen it before, too caught up in her own lusts and desires. She’d lived a long time, had seen many things and, as she gazed down at her flesh and blood, she saw the look she’d seen on John’s face too many times before.

Deception.

“Tell me you love me, Mother,” Ashley purred before drawing her tongue across Helen’s lips.

“I love you.”

**

ONE MONTH LATER

The air was crisp and cold. The stars in the night sky obscured by the thin layer of clouds in the upper atmosphere. Helen inhaled deeply, missing London and fog and gas powered lamps.

“Helen?”

She turned towards Will as he approached her on the bridge to nowhere.

“What’s with the cloak and dagger?” he asked, hands buried deep in his pockets.

“Ashley’s the reason,” Helen answered. She waited until Will had completed his approach, standing shoulder to shoulder with her.

“Has she killed again?”

“No. At least, not yet,” Helen quieted. She leaned forward, placing her gloved hands on the railing. “It’s not very often I say this and if you follow with ‘I told you so’ I will toss you off this bridge,” she paused again. She definitely had Will’s attention. “I was wrong. About Ashley.” She shifted her legs, placing one boot in front of the other. “Ashley’s been many things but she’s never been deceptive and definitely never with me. But something’s different about her now. And I can’t help her and stay the course, so to speak.” Helen sighed, then took a deep swallow which tasted a lot like her pride. “I need your help, Will.”

Will mulled her words over. “And if that means you stop sleeping with her?”

Her eyes snapped towards his and Will almost winced at the ‘if looks could kill’ gaze in her eyes. Then, Helen softened. “Yes.”

“Wow. Okay.” Will pulled a hand from his pocket and ran it over his head. He definitely hadn’t been expecting this. “Ashley knows John’s her father.”

“What!?!” Helen whipped towards Will with a ferocity that made him take a step back. “And you didn’t tell me?”

“Hey,” he lifted his hands defensively. “Your words, Helen. You told me to butt out and stay out.”

“But how could this happen? I’ve taken every precaution.”

“It’s the mind wipes. They don’t work on her anymore. She was bound to figure it out sooner or later.”

Helen placed her hands back on the railing. The leather of her gloves squeaked softly as her grip tightened. “Oh Ashley,” she whispered under her breath and Will could’ve sworn she’d said it with a sort of reverence. “What a tangled web we weave,” she paused, attentions snapping back to the present. “Is there anything else?”

“I could ask the same of you, Helen.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“If you want me to help Ashley, I have to help you in the process. And that means no more secrets. What else are you hiding?”

“I’m hiding many things, Mr. Zimmerman. But when it comes to Ashley, you know everything you need to know.”

“So you’re not hiding anything.”

Helen straightened to her full height, even under the dim light of the bridge, Will could see the coldness in her eyes.

“No.”

**

WHITECHAPEL, LONDON 1888

John Druitt burst through the door then immediately skidded to a stop, the back of his hand pressed against his mouth to stifle the scream.

“By God, Helen,” he gasped. “What have you done?”

“What have I done? No, John,” Helen turned her head towards him. She wiped the bloody blade in her hand with a corner of the sheet. “The question is - what have *you* done? You court me, tell me you love me, lay with me and then turn around and cavort with prostitutes? Did you think I wouldn’t know? That I couldn’t smell them on you?”

“But why?” he dared to ask. The body, if what was lying on the mattress could even be considered a body, the body used to be Mary. She was sweet and kind and laughed at his jokes.

“Why?” Helen laughed. “Because I’m Helen Magnus, that’s why. Because vengeance is a woman scorned.”

“You’re mad!” he spat. He took a step forward then something within him compelled John to stop.

“Mad?” she chuckled as she turned her back to him, gathering her instruments and placing them in her doctor’s bag. “Perhaps. But, at least I won’t be alone.”

“What do you..”

He never finished his sentence. Entering the room, his eyes unable to look away from the carnage or Helen, John never noticed the man in the corner. He rushed towards John, his arm forward, fingers outstretched. With just a touch, John slumped to his knees. His eyes went blank, mouth slack-jawed open.

Takeshi Mori kept his hands on John’s head even as John slumped to his knees.

“Astonishing,” Helen gasped. “So it is true?”

“Yes,” Takeshi answered.

“And you can do more than just take memories, you can create them as well?”

“Yes,” he nodded. “Think of memories as water in a cup. I can take a little or a lot, and I can also fill it.”

“Then do it,” Helen knelt onto the floor. She lifted a hand, caressing John’s face. “Make him love me. Make him think of no other but me,” the smile faded and Helen’s eyes turned dark and menacing. “Then give him my memories of this,” she nodded her head to the carnage behind her. “If I am to be mad, then so shall he. Make him the monster responsible for this. When the time comes, I shall reveal the truth but only until then. For now, he must suffer for what he has done. Then,” she placed her hand on her stomach. “We can finally be a family.”

Takeshi nodded. “As you wish.”

**

“You know I knew your great-grandfather,” Helen lifted the cup of tea to her face, inhaling the scent deeply before taking a sip. “He died a month after we met. A stroke. You’re the first in many generations to share his gift.”

“You’ve been very generous to our family.” Kasumi Mori took a sip from her own cup. “But, I must admit, you confuse me. First, you ask me to wipe your daughter’s memories. Then, you ask me to fake it. Now, you want me to wipe her again?”

“Oh no, you’re not here for Ashley. At least,” Helen paused, an eyebrow rising coyly on her forehead. “Not yet. I’ve just become aware of the new game we’re playing. No, she mustn’t be wiped. At least not until I know Ashley’s endgame.”

“Then who am I here for?”

“Dr. Zimmerman. There are things about my daughter and I that he knows but shouldn‘t. I‘ve come to realize if he is to proceed here in the Sanctuary such knowledge must be removed.” Helen set her cup down on the table, picking up the pot and refilling her cup. “More tea?”

**

Helen sat and waited, basking in the warm sunlight filtering through the windows of her study, sipping her cup of tea. It had been over an hour since she’d called Ashley and still the girl had not come. There’d be no point in calling again, Ashley was many things, being forgetful was not one of them. She was playing her game and Helen allowed her to do so. Helen was also many things - patient being one of them.

The doors to Helen’s study opened and Helen casually lifted her head as Ashley entered the room. She wore her motorcycle leathers even though she hadn’t actually left the Sanctuary.

“You asked for me?” Ashley spoke.

“Sit down, Ashley,” Helen pointed towards the high back Victorian chair opposite her. “Tea?” she asked as Ashley unzipped her jacket then sat down.

“You know I hate that stuff,” Ashley snorted.

“Mmm,” Helen replied, bringing her cup to her lips and taking a polite sip. She gazed over the lip of the polished china. “You get that from your father.”

Ashley pursed her lips as the tension filled the air. “My father?”

“Please now, darling. We’re beyond that.” Helen set down her cup, then straightened in her seat. “Did you think I didn’t know?”

The wheels clicked and Ashley growled. “Fucking Will,” she muttered under her breath.

“Now, now, don’t be angry at our Mr. Zimmerman. He’s only fulfilling his purpose.”

“And what’s that?”

“Helping me help you,” Helen answered. “It’s why I had his memory wiped. Oh, he remembers your attack and all the secrets you indulged. But, his reticence to accept our,” she paused, meeting Ashley’s eyes. “Relationship and his reaction to me makes him not completely trustworthy.”

“God,” Ashley rolled her eyes. “And we can’t have that.”

“No,” Helen’s face went dark, leaning back in her chair, arms planted on the armrests. “We can’t.”

“Because, God forbid, anyone know we‘re fucking.” Ashley opened her legs, leaning forward and planting her elbows on her knees. The sun had moved across the sky, obscuring Mother‘s face in shadow, and Ashley wanted to see her Mother‘s face. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I want to trust you. Because you‘re my only child and, one day, all this shall be yours. But you still lack impulse control over your.. Urges,” Helen spat the word as if something distasteful had entered her mouth. “Something else you and your Father share.”

Helen reached down by her legs, she pulled up a box that had been resting, hidden, by her chair. She watched Ashley’s face as the younger woman recognized the box. It was made of wood, with antiquated carvings on the top. Helen set it on the coffee table, pulling the tiny gold latch and lifting the lid. Neither mother nor daughter had any interest in the other contents of the box - the whet stone, the long empty jars of shaving powder and after shave.

No. Both mother and daughter’s eyes focused on the blade. Helen’s fingers grazed over the smooth surface of the pearl handle. Helen stifled the sharp intake of breath. She no longer had the ‘compulsion’, that now belonged to Ashley and her father, but she still felt the dark pull.

“I gave this to your father. A token of my affection for him. A token he used to betray me.” Helen removed her fingers then closed the wooden box. “I should have thrown it out the first time you used it against someone.” Helen chuckled. “And yet, I couldn’t. The pull it has on you is within me as well. I thought I could hide it. But you always managed to find wherever it was hidden, didn’t you?”

“Contrary to popular belief, you can be a bit predictable,” Ashley answered.

“Why do you do this?” Helen asked, genuinely curious. “Play a game you know you can’t win?”

“Who says the goal is to win? All I have to do is just not lose.”

Helen gazed intently at her daughter. At this new and different Ashley no longer hidden behind a mask of deception. “What do you want?”

“What do I want?” Ashley rose from her seat. She scooted the coffee table roughly to the side with her boot, then stepped towards Helen. She dropped to her knees before Helen, hands sliding up Helen’s thighs and taking Helen’s skirt with them. Then, Ashley placed her hands on Helen’s knees and, without much resistance, opened them.

Mother wasn’t wearing panties. Dirty, dirty Mother, Ashley thought. “What do I want?” she repeated, hands under Helen’s thighs and folding her legs over the armrests. “I want..” she leaned down and kissed the inside of a thigh. “Your secret,” she kissed the inside of Helen’s other thigh.

Helen purred, “You already know my secret.”

“No, Mother,” her lips pressed gently against Helen’s sex. “Your real secret.” She pressed the tip of her tongue hard then ran it up the length of Helen’s slip. “The deep, dark one that you keep locked inside you.”

Helen reached up with both hands, gripping the back of her chair. “What makes you think I have such a secret?”

“Why should I believe you don’t?” Index and middle finger placed on Helen’s vulva, Ashley pulled the lips open, teasingly flicking her tongue over Helen’s clit.

“If there were such a secret,” Helen paused, licking her lips because it was getting very hard to concentrate. Very hard. “What would you give me for it?”

“Honestly,” Ashley chuckled. “There isn’t anything of me you haven’t already taken.” With that, she shoved two fingers into Helen and Ashley shivered as Mother cried out at the forced penetration.

“Don’t be too sure of that, my love,” Helen exhaled. She reached down with a hand, placing it on the top of Ashley’s head and pushing her daughter down. “Don’t be too sure.”

Ashley was eager, she was always eager but there was patience. She took her time with Helen, teasing and taunting with her lips and tongue, until Helen felt as if she would die from anticipation alone.

Time.

Helen had time. Time to explore and examine this new Ashley, this new facet created from John and Helen. And when the time came, she would ‘re-set’ Ashley, take away what was bad and keep what was good. Even if what was bad wasn’t actually within Ashley at all. All that mattered was the time Helen had. Time to weave -

Her tangled web.

END


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